Met Helmet

Experimental shot with R7 and 24-70

Today (13th December, 2023) I got for myself a greyish white Met helmet from Rito's. They offered it at 5K against the MRP of 9K because it was lying around for a long time and had gathered some dust - nothing that didn't go with some isopropyl alcohol.

Along with it, I also bought a cheap full sleeve jersey in saffron and a rear view mirror. The mirror is from a Taiwan company named Guee.

Being used to driving cars and motorcycles, I am very used to a rear view mirror on my right hand side. Subconsciously the eye goes in that direction even when walking. Also vehicles in Calcutta come very close to you and often cross you with hardly any space in between. Mezda was knocked down by a motorcycle a few months ago when it's protruding bag brushed against him. Luckily there was no other speeding vehicle coming from behind to crush him. 

I keep looking behind by turning the head. It's a good exercise for the spine and neck and I am quite good at it for my age. Another issue in Calcutta is the larger commercial vehicles often make so much noise that you think it is about to knock you down. Then you turn around and find it is nothing but a rickety truck, carrying construction rubbish to some dump and quite far off. The ones that do a close pass are almost always silent. 

So the mirror would help. Now on to the helmet.

My other go to helmet, the Merida black and green, is now 8K old. In summer the nylon strap becomes clammy and I need to wash it frequently. A spare helmet would help. I did buy a second Merida a couple of years ago. But it turned out to be an extremely cheap and painful helmet. The inner foam cushion has come off and it hurts. I guess I will give it away to the NGO that works with poor children and gives them cycles and teaches rugby etc. 

I loved the fit of this helmet and the colour. Apparently it comes with Mips technology. I have to study what it means. But it is some enhanced safety feature. I shall test it soon and give a feedback. As of now it fits fine. Have to see how airy it is. But given how chilly the mornings are now I have half a mind to ride in the morning with the warm woolen cap.

Mirror Comment - The mirror is pretty useless for me. A. the image is too small for me to see. B. If you can comfortably turn your head while cycling, this is totally unnecessary. In a nutshell, this is useless.

Squirt Lube

Pic taken on 9th May, 2024. Part of my new project to take photography more seriously

I had bought a bottle of Squirt from Rito a few months ago. Squirt is a wax based lubricant for bicycle chains. I cannot remember exactly when I bought it but that was quite a while ago. Might well be in 2022. But I never used it until recently. I was using my WPL wet lube which is a pretty good traditional lubricant. Before this I had a bottle of Finish Line dry lube which also worked just fine for me. I bought the Squirt more out of curiosity. I had seen its name being mentioned by a lot of people on international cycling forums. 

Sometime in end November (19th November, to be precise), I wanted to give my Surly chain a thorough clean. It is there since I bought the bike (more than 5000 km now) and has never really been taken off the bike for a thorough cleaning job. It is almost coming to the end of its service life. So I thought, before changing it I would give it a thorough clean. 

I took the masterlink off and soaked the chain in kerosene oil. After some time I brushed it with an old tooth brush. Then cleaned it in soap water followed by rinsing in clear water. After this I repeated the entire process once again because I found there was still some dirt stuck to the chain. 

Finally I dried it with a piece of cloth and let it drip dry by hanging from a hook. After this I installed the chain and lubed it with Squirt. I let it sit overnight and went out with the bike next morning. I put one drop on each link from the top.

But to my utter surprise I realised the chain was making an annoying continuous noise. Like a drone. After coming back home I cleaned the chain with a cloth. There was some blackish gunk. And I reapplied the lube. This time I kept the chain on lowest gear, as recommended on a youtube video. This apparently keeps the chain a little twisted and hence leaves a slight gap in the rollers to let the lube go in.

This time I lubed the chain twice. Once on the upper side and another time on the lower side. Exactly as suggested in the video. Normally I put a drop on each link from the top. This time I was a little more generous. I let it sit for two days, when I rode my road bike. This time when I tried it the sound was a little less but it was still there. I have always ridden in total silence and even the slightest noise leaves me very annoyed. As it is, I am quite obsessive about any continuous noise anywhere. I just cannot stand it. It draws my attention and I cannot concentrate on anything else.

I was very disappointed for the second time. I went ahead and applied another round of lube to absolutely no avail. 

So in total I applied three rounds of Squirt but the sound remained just as annoying. It's a continuous dronish sound. It stops the moment you stop pedalling.

What was I doing wrong? Most of the videos on the subject talk about applying Squirt on a new chain. And they talk about cleaning the chain (of the factory supplied lube) thoroughly, which I certainly did. But what I didn't do is clean the entire drive train. I didn't clean the jockey wheels on the rear derailleur. I had cleaned the front chain rings a little perfunctorily. I didn't even touch the cassette. The videos don't talk about the need to thoroughly clean the entire drive train.

I checked the chain. It had visible gunk all over, despite this being the dry winter months. A wax based lube is not supposed to have such gunk all over. So I told myself - I will clean the entire drive train once again very thoroughly and give it a last chance. If it still makes any noise I will either throw the bottle away or give it away to someone. Meanwhile I started riding my road bike in total silence.

A few days ago I decided to repeat the entire cleaning process but this time more thoroughly. I took the chain off once again. I cleaned it with the Ice Toolz degreaser (as opposed to kerosene) followed by soap cleaning. But more than the chain I spent a lot of time cleaning the two jockey wheels. I used a screwdriver to do the job. They became squeaky clean and started moving very nicely. I also thoroughly cleaned the front chain rings. I took the rear wheel off and thoroughly cleaned the casette. It wasn't dirty enough to require taking the casette off. 

After drying the chain overnight I discovered there was still some stubborn gunk stuck to the inside of a few of the links. I cleaned them individually with a thin screwdriver and literally polished every individual link with a piece of cloth.

After installing the chain I applied the lube. One drop on each of the link - once from the top, another time from the bottom. The chain was kept on 1st gear. 

I let the lube sit for more than 3/4 days. This was not by design but because it was raining in Calcutta and I didn't go out riding in the cold rains. 

Today, with some trepidation, I went out to check out how my intervention worked. I was quite determined that if it still makes any noise I will just degrease it and apply my wet lube. To hell with Squirt. I have a planned long ride in Orissa coming up. I cannot take any chance any more. 

But once out on the road I realised that the thorough cleaning job worked. The chain is absolutely smooth and silent. My normal lube also makes it quite smooth but wax keeps the chain clean and therefore improves its lifespan. That's the only advantage of wax.

So I am keeping Squirt for now. I will take it to Orissa because people say it requires frequent application. I shall see. As of now I am very happy that I solved the problem.

If you want to wax or Squirt your chain - please remember to abssolutely thoroughly clean the entire drive train, not just the chain. I think this lube being much thicker gets easily blocked if there is any gunk there in the links. So clean it up and give it the time to get in. And you have a delightfully quiet and silent chain.

I will change the chain once I come back from my Orissa ride. As of now the  stick showing100 per cent on my chain wear indicator is not going in smoothly, meaning there is still some life left in the chain. I guess in another few hundred kilometers it will become smoother, meaning it would be worn out enough to require a change.